Have you ever heard the phrase, “You can choose your friends
but you can’t choose your family?” I
love that quote, not because I don’t love my family but because it says so much
about the importance and the privilege of friendship. I come from a wonderful family, not a super
close one, but one that gets along all of the time and takes care of the
business of life. I could probably fill a novel with the ways in which my
family falls into the “oddball” category, but we are an awesome bunch of
people!
When I say that I have enjoyed some amazing friendships over
the years, I say that with an overwhelming sense of joy. I could die tomorrow a happy person just because
my heart is beating a happy rhythm. My family
puts the blood in my heart but the fun of friendship keeps it pumping!
Do you remember the last time you made a new friend; a
neighbor, someone from church, a coworker? Hopefully it wasn’t very long
ago. I’ve made some new friends lately,
but I feasted in friendship the other night with three truly unique people who
were strangers to me until a few months ago.
They know what it’s like to sit alone for hours spilling your brain onto
paper. They understand the frustration
when self-doubt ruptures dreams to form barricades. These friends know how to turn critique into
creative energy, and they know how to think, truly ponder the imagination, and
then laugh and marvel at what fruit the mind produces.
Less than eight weeks ago these people sat quietly around a
coffee table and offered up their creative works for criticism. Openness allows
for respect, and respect welcomes friendship. The past two weeks we have
feasted around a dining room table filled with good food for our bodies, while filling our minds, spirits and
souls with the one thing that has the possibility to comfort, heal, grow,
charm, and inspire …and that thing is creativity. We may not ever achieve greatness by our works,
but we will aspire to put on paper that which our minds create…and there is greatness
in that!
If you haven’t made a new friend lately, I encourage you to
open up. You can pick some friends that
have different quirks than your family! Dine on the diversity and enjoy the
fullness of life! Thrive on a feast of ideas…a feast of fellowship!
robipace 